Matisse – “Studying under the Masters – Becoming an Apprentice”

I recently started a new, online course titled, “Studying under the Masters – Becoming an Apprentice”. This 9 week course is offered by Jeanne Oliver and features 9 different teachers, covering one master artist per week. The whole idea of the course is to learn about the master artist’s lives, their work, their processes, their inspiration, etc. and to spend some focused time “copying” their work or their style so you can learn. I’ve had a blast already…so much fun even trying to select which of Matisse’s wonderful pieces I would attempt to copy. I finally settled on one of his pieces titled “Finestra” (1916).

It was nice to step outside of my normal style for a few hours. I’ve spent much of my of the last year painting feminine archetypes and I enjoyed trying something new. I started out by applying a base coat of mixed golden yellow and amber shades of acrylics to an 8 x 10″ canvas, sketched the outline in charcoal, painted the outline with Golden fluid acrylics, did color-blocking and added details.